Poverty & Opression Underlie Peru Crisis

Daring rebel action catches Fujimori regime by surprise

By Monica Ruiz. Reprinted from the Jan. 2, 1997 issue of Workers World newspaper

The daring and successful takeover of the Japanese
ambassador's house in the capital city of Lima has focused
world attention on Peru's Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement
(MRTA).

The MRTA, one of several revolutionary armies in Peru, took
over the house on the evening of Dec. 17 in what the group
called Operation Breaking the Silence.

Dressed as waiters, the rebels crashed a lavish party
commemorating the birthday of Japanese Emperor Akihito.
Hundreds of people, including members of Peru's ruling class
and international and political elite, found their
celebration transformed into an arena of class struggle.

Some 600 party-goers were captured by the guerrillas. As of
this writing, the majority have been released, either for
humanitarian reasons or for negotiating purposes. MRTA
militants-described as young and extremely
disciplined-continue to hold Peruvian Foreign Minister
Francisco Tudela, 11 ambassadors, the country's top generals
and the heads of Peru's political police, including Gen.
Maximo Rivera, director of the National Directorate Against
Terrorism (DINCOTE), and Carlos Dom Anguez, former DINCOTE
director.

The MRTA is demanding the liberation of 500 of its comrades
languishing in prisons throughout Peru and an end to the
neoliberal economic policies of President Alberto Fujimori's
regime. It also demands repeal of the amnesty law that
absolves paramilitary death squads, the reestablishment of
union rights, abolition of the new land law, and guaranteed
recognition of the campesino community, according to
released hostages.

U.S. AND JAPAN INTERVENE

Negotiations between the Fujimori government and the MRTA
have been taking place in a climate of open imperialist
intervention by both the U.S. and Japanese governments.

Outwardly, at least, the Japanese government has supported a
more conciliatory approach toward the rebel demands, placing
a priority on resolving the crisis without force. The U.S.
has taken a more bellicose position, warning Peru's
government not to reward hostage-takers by negotiating with
them.

The Fujimori government has said it won't use force to
resolve the crisis-as long as the MRTA surrenders. But it
has stationed 900 police and special forces around the house
and has cut off water, phone service and electricity,
creating a severe sanitary problem.

The U.S. has rushed a team of "security advisers" to Lima.
On Dec. 20, U.S. State Department spokesperson Nicholas
Burns refused to comment on reports that the Pentagon has
also dispatched a special commando called Delta Force from
Fort Bragg, N.C., to Howard Air Force Base in the Panama
Canal Zone for possible deployment to Peru.

The British government, working in tandem with the U.S.,
also sent a security team-reportedly elite Special Air
Service "anti-terrorist" paratroopers.

Beneath the differences in approach to the crisis between
Japan and the U.S. is their competition for hegemony in
Peru.

While the U.S. remains the largest source of economic and
military aid to Peru, Japan runs a close second. Japan has
tried to use Peru as an economic beachhead in Latin America,
making this Andean country the leading recipient of Japanese
development loans in the region. Japan has an interest in
keeping a modicum of peace and stability for its investments
to continue flourishing.

Fujimori is of Japanese ancestry, reflecting the affinity
between one section of Peru's ruling class and the growing
Japanese presence in what has been for over a century within
the U.S. economic sphere of influence.

The U.S., on the other hand, has tried to build stronger
links to the Peruvian military under the cover of the
so-called drug war. Using this excuse the Pentagon provides
military helicopters and advisers to Peru-that can then be
used against popular armed movements.

Another avenue for seemingly innocuous assistance is the
U.S. Agency for International Development, which has been
identified as a frequent conduit for CIA money. Peru is the
largest recipient in South America of USAID funds.

OPPRESSED ARE EXHILARATED

The British news agency Reuter reports widespread support in
the Latin American left for the MRTA action-which means that
workers and peasants are celebrating this daring act.

Julio Marenales, a former leader of the Uruguayan Movement
for National Liberation, known as the Tupamaros, said he
felt close to any movement that wages a sincere struggle and
seeks a profound change in the country.

Rina Bertaccini of the Argentine Communist Party charged
that "The responsibility for this situation lies with the
Peruvian government, which holds political prisoners in
terrible conditions."

Marco Leon Calarca, spokesperson for the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, stated, "The people of the world cannot
sink into extreme poverty and misery without struggling.
They have to defend themselves against the aggression of the
neoliberal model."

By neoliberalism is meant the so-called free trade policy of
the world banks that has forced so many indebted developing
countries to privatize state-owned industries and open their
internal markets to transnationals. This usually leads to
the bankruptcy of domestic businesses and farms, with
growing unemployment and misery for the people.

GLARING RICH-POOR GAP

Over 50 percent of Peru's people live below the poverty
line. The poor are overwhelmingly of Indian descent. Fully
54 percent of the population is Indian, with another 32
percent mixed Spanish and Indian.

The ruling elite, on the other hand, is white. This tiny,
wealthy elite lives surrounded both physically and socially
by an enormous mass of super-oppressed. The rich
neighborhoods where the wealthy live are surrounded by
gigantic slums known euphemistically as pueblos
jovenes--young towns.

This small elite has every reason to fear the world around
it, given the difference in wealth, power and numbers. So
they have demanded, and got, a government that delivers
fierce repression of any who challenge their privileged
status.

These conditions have inevitably led the Peruvian people
toward armed revolutionary struggle. In 1980, the Peruvian
Communist Party-known as the Shining Path-launched a
military campaign against the Peruvian ruling class that had
strong support in some of the most impoverished rural areas.

The MRTA, a Marxist-Leninist group that emerged in 1982,
launched its first armed attack in 1984. It takes its name
from Tupac Amaru II, the last Inca to lead a rebellion
against Spanish colonizers in 1782.

Fujimori--a former engineer with no political background--was
elected in 1990 as a reflection of the insecurity of the
Peruvian elite. His election marked a break from the
traditional ruling parties toward military rule administered
by law-and-order technocrats. His tough, dictatorial stance
is aimed at shielding the elite from the fury of the masses.

As the present situation shows, however, they can never
shield themselves from the workers. It is workers who feed
them, wash their clothes, cook their food, tend their
gardens, and protect their palatial homes.

The revolutionaries who got into the ambassador's compound
were dressed as caterers and came carrying champagne and
caviar. Reports from released hostages describe them as
young workers, women and men. Their leader is reported to be
Nestor Cerpa Cartolini, a militant union official who was
jailed in 1979 for leading a worker occupation of Cromotex,
a textile plant that was being closed.

POVERTY AND MILITARY DICTATORSHIP

Consolidating his control of the country, Fujimori shut down
the Congress in April 1992. He then fired nearly half the
Supreme Court and assumed dictatorial powers. Fujimori
recently managed to amend the Peruvian constitution so he
could rule for a third term.

After years of economic policies dictated by the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, 80 percent
of Peru's workforce remains either jobless or
under-employed, according to a Dec. 18 Reuter report. Only
one in 32 people have a telephone and millions have little
or no access to medical care. Fujimori's standing in the
polls has steadily dropped over the last five years.

In his campaign to decimate the revolutionary movements in
Peru, Fujimori has given the military free rein. As a
consequence, the prisons have been flooded with thousands of
political prisoners.

In the last 18 months alone, the repressive antiterrorism
laws have led to 500,000 detentions-a figure disputing
Fujimori's claim that the guerrilla movements have no
popular support. Anyone arrested under these laws is
sentenced within 24 hours by a military court administered
by a hooded judge-giving rise to the term "faceless
justice." The accused is almost always found guilty and is
sentenced to long or life jail terms under brutal
conditions.

These repressive conditions have made the prisons centers of
political organizing. The MRTA's demand for the release of
its leader, Victor Polay, and 500 other comrades has already
thrown a spotlight on the brutal conditions faced by the
thousands of political prisoners.

No matter how the MRTA takeover ends, the Fujimori regime
has suffered a significant defeat. Its claims of victory
over the popular movement are now seen as mere wishful
thinking. The silence has been broken as the voice of pain
and anger of the political prisoners and masses of the poor
has been broadcast around the world.

Their valiant action is a signal to imperialists around the
world: the revolutionary forces in Peru are alive and well.